As an example of the technique for making a determination that a failure has occurred to a cooling mechanism of a vehicle, an abnormality determination apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-46077 (PTL 1). This abnormality determination apparatus prevents an erroneous determination that the drive state of an electric water pump is abnormal in spite of the fact that the drive state is normal.
Specifically, when the engine is stopped, an electronic control device pressure-feeds a coolant to a heater core provided in a flow channel extending from the electric pump to the engine. When the temperature of the coolant in the heater core is lower by a predetermined value or more than the temperature of the coolant in the engine, the control device determines that the drive state of the electric pump is abnormal.